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Scientists discover an underlying genetic cause for 15% of Alzheimer's cases
An estimated 15% of Alzheimer’s patients carry two copies of the APOE4 gene, which has been identified for the first time to be an underlying cause of the disease.
The findings mark a distinction with “profound implications,” said Dr. Juan Fortea, who led the study the Sant Pau Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain. Some doctors won’t offer the only drug that has been shown to modestly slow the disease, Leqembi, to people with the gene pair because they’re especially prone to a dangerous side effect, said Dr. Reisa Sperling, a study coauthor at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. As for gene tests, for now they’re typically used only to evaluate if someone’s a candidate for Leqembi or for people enrolling in Alzheimer’s research — especially studies of possible ways to prevent the disease.
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